Basketball On The Internet.

LIKE many Adelaide 36ers fans, I would love 1986 championship coach Ken Cole to pull off his ambitious plan to buy the NBL club.

Having spoken with him at length about it, his ideas are exciting and easily promotable. Never let it be said The King doesn't have great ideas.

His plans for the team itself would quickly have queues filing back from the Adelaide Arena doors desperate to get in and see his Sixers, while his cross-promotion ideas with our AFL, A-League, cricket and ANZ Championship teams are simple and brilliant.

No, as he approaches 70 years of age, Ken has no delusions about coaching again. Offering some tips here and there for budding young players is one thing, the grind of training sessions and games quite another.

When he flew out of Adelaide, Ken was very confident he had US business interests already anxious to own the NBL outfit.

The SOS (Save Our Sixers) Consortium which currently owns the club, and its chairman Daryl Simmons, are in discussions with KC who is doing his due diligence and has a list of questions awaiting formal answers.

Wisely, Simmons and the remaining members of his SOS team are still also exploring other models for how to create long-term sustainability and viability for Adelaide's NBL club.

I say "wisely" because given Ken's health issues, my one great personal reservation and concern is he will not be able to sustain his own strength to see it all the way through and that now, back home in San Diego, his passion for the 36ers will be susceptible to his own daily challenge.

Let's remember why Basketball Australia brought his Hall of Fame induction forward to last month, The King fighting twin and non-compatible battles with diabetes and cancer.

My fingers are crossed for him - and for all hardy 36ers fans too - but I reserve any optimism until some paperwork has actually been tabled and signed.  

NEVER had the pleasure of sitting down for an in-depth interview with Canberra Caps captain Jess Bibby but I was blown away by her quotes last week in The Canberra Times.

(If you missed it, cut and paste the link to check out http://www.canberratimes.com.au/sport/basketball/bibby-claims-theres-little-respect-for-wnbl-20130111-2clsl.html what was said and get up to speed.)

I cannot agree more with how appalling it is for Basketball Australia to have shut down something such as the Caps live streaming of games on the basis of its quality, to replace it with ... absolutely nothing.

Just ridiculous.

It would make a modicum of sense if we had wnbl.tv in the way we now have nbl.tv but we don't. So to jackboot on something which was only promoting the product defies logic.

This kind of sexism - because let's not be afraid to call it what it is - actually started around the time BA housed the NBL and WNBL under one roof in the great One Basketball dream, which really only meant a sharing of resources and cost-cutting.

That was around the time the women's league lost its dedicated chief executive position - I recall being told something along the lines of "Oh don't worry, Lorraine Landon will just pick it up and run it" - and the decline in the WNBL's relevance at the BA office began.

Fortunate to be included in a Larry Sengstock-driven working party on how the WNBL should evolve, I can say that committee made numerous excellent recommendations with a view to moving the league into a professional position to rival netball's ANZ Championship.

But Larry is long gone.

And the only recommendation which appears to have been adopted by BA was recognition the AIS's involvement in a semi-pro league was no longer appropriate.

All else went into the "too hard" basket, along with the memo about Canberra's desire to continue live-streaming its WNBL games.   

Well done Jess. I hope your forthright honesty doesn't land you in any hot water and, instead, BA actually revisits another of its knee-jerk, it-sounds-like-this-should-be-our-position decisions and acts for the betterment of the game. Not for what it anticipates is for the betterment of the game.

HERITAGE round is coming up for the NBL and it's good news for Cairns as it heads to Perth Arena.

The Taipans will be wearing Cairns Marlins uniforms from their 2004 ABA Championship season while Perth will be acknowledging its history by wearing Westate Wildcats uniforms from 1982.

They finished 10th of 14 NBL teams that year.

The Marlins could beat that side.

Their line-up was Aaron Fearne, Kane Oakley, Aron Baynes, Scott Paget, Kerry Williams, Peterson Opio, Nathan Jawai, Michael Cresswell, Curt Ahwang, Daniel Smith, Aaron Grabau, Ben Arkell and Rowan Gray. It was coached by current CEO Mark Beecroft and had Rupert Sapwell as assistant coach.

Some mightly good names among that lot and Grabau still has his original uniform, just in case anyone wants to retire it.
 
YES, it is great to see Dandenong superstar Jenna O'Hea has finally won a WNBL Player of the Week award.

But we all know she should have won it a couple of rounds back. This may just be what referees never ever ever refer to as the "make-up call".

Because Jenna played two games at the weekend and went 3-of-17 in one of them. Yes, she also had 8 boards and 8 assists but then she also had 7 turnovers in her other performance in which she hit 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting.

PotW? Hmm.

It's long overdue, for sure though.

AFTER going 0-10, you wouldn't think Townsville would be winning any NBL awards anytime soon.

But you would be wrong. Gary Ervin and Paul Woolpert respectively have collected the Player and Coach of the Month awards for December as the Crocodiles saved their season, going 3-0.

They had that out to 5-0 before dropping narrowly at home to New Zealand last round and catch Wollongong this round with the Hawks down on numbers.

Bet there were many relieved 36ers officials in Adelaide too who were grateful Wollongong could not get the deal with CJ Massingale done in time due to visa complications.

With three Hawks-36ers games to come, CJ most definitely would have haunted Adelaide.

HOW important is it to keep your line-up healthy?

In fact, is there anything more important than that?

Look at New Zealand for example and it is travelling nicely with minimal disruptions to its personnel.

This round it comes up against Wollongong and Adelaide. Normally, that would be a relatively tough double and, no doubt, both clubs will do their best to thwart the Breakers.
 
But Wollongong has to do it without starting point guard Rhys Martin (ACL-done), Lance Hurdle (ACL-done) and Daniel Jackson (SG1-off planet) after already having to deal with Tiiim Cooeenraaad, Tyson Demos and Larry Davidson spending time on the sidelines.

It's not just their absence which hurts, but settling them back in again also is challenging, especially when you're running into a New Zealand or a Perth which has been sailing along fairly steadily.

(Admittedly Perth had to deal with losing Matty Knight for a while but did a nice job in slotting Michael Dunigan into his role, while The Buccaneer's retirement was self-imposed.)

No sooner have the Breakers had to negotiate a depleted Wollongong than they head into Adelaide Arena to face the 36ers who have lost Mitch Creek for the season and who last week held their collective breaths when Luke Skyhooker hit the floor with a thud which reverberated around the venue.

While Schensch is cleared to play after that tumble took him to hospital, the fact remains keeping your main rotation healthy is an absolute essential in any genuine title run.

Which, of course, brings us to this week's rankings.

NBL Rankings

This Wk ... Prev

8 (8) TAIPANS - Beating injury-hit Hawks in o/t not that dazzling. Now away to Perth?

7 (6) CROCS - Let NZ off the hook but can catch Hawks on the fly and start moving up.

6 (5) TIGERS - Must build on that last quarter against Perth to stop Sydney.

5 (7) 36ERS - Finally a win and a good one at that. Now for a Breakers challenge.

4 (4) KINGS - Blew the season-series with Sixers and must regroup against Tigers.

3 (3) HAWKS - Still clinging to #3 but injuries look likely to nobble them now.

2 (2) BREAKERS - Did enough to escape Crocs and should go 2-0 this round.

1 (1) WILDCATS - Right. We can really see Cairns beating Perth in Perth, can we?


WNBL Rankings

This Wk ... Prev

9 (8) WAVES - Ladies, if you cannot beat Canberra in Perth then what is there left for you?

8 (9) CAPITALS - First win since November 11, now for Dandenong ... ugh.

7 (6) THUNDER - Should get a split in Adelaide-Perth but still just #1 spoiler.

6 (7) BOOMERS - Can make a move back into contention if they douse the Fire.

5 (5) FLAMES - Have a bye so expect KD to buy another star somewhere.

4 (4) FIRE - A massive weekend which can make or break Townsville's season.

3 (3) LIGHTNING - Suzy is back and all is right with the world. Logan? They're owed.

2 (2) RANGERS - 21-0 start to a last quarter? Canberra should start the game now.

1 (1) SPIRIT - Heading down the home stretch now and still looking great.


THIS WEEK'S TIPS

IT'S a shame Wollongong did not get the CJ Massingale injection it surely could have used against New Zealand and while all is not lost for the Hawks, winning in front of a sold-out crowd in Auckland appears unlikely.

Cairns turned a corner last week but will realise it is in a maze when it hits the frenzied atmosphere of Perth Arena where the Wildcats will prevail.

Sydney squandered its season-series against Adelaide last week and the series with Melbourne also hangs in the balance this time around. As they did with the 36ers, the Kings go into the fourth-and-final regular season clash with the Tigers leading the series 2-1. A Melbourne win would make it 2-2 so points spread becomes relevant. The Kings have won 85-82 (+3) and 72-67 (+5). Melbourne's win was 74-71 (+3). So to clinch the series, Melbourne must win by six. To win the series, Sydney just has to win. I'm tipping the Tigers to win but not by enough to steal the series.

Townsville blew it against New Zealand so will watch Wollongong's match against the Breakers tonight with great interest. This will be the Hawks' second game without the Martin-Hurdle backcourt so they will have had a little adjustment time. I'm tipping Glen Saville to reach back into his Larry Sengstock Medal memories to produce a big one and get Wollongong across the line.

Considering a few weeks back New Zealand turned around a 21-point halftime deficit to beat the 36ers at Adelaide Arena, the Breakers should come in with no great fears, even though Adelaide broke its own hoodoo last round. Closer than anticipated, this should still be a Breakers' W.

THE memory of their biggest WNBL loss of the season a round ago at Logan will not be lost on the Lightning who will be hellbent on erasing that aberration at Adelaide Arena.

Bendigo at home and creating records for itself each week will start favorite to put a dent in Townsville's post-season plans and Dandenong will be just as anxious to maintain the heat on the Spirit by icing Canberra.

Townsville at Bulleen is the key match of the round, both teams eager to capture that one available spot in the top four behind the big two-and-a-half. I'm thinking the sweet odour of that spaghetti marinara cooking in the pots out the back of the Veneto Club will be a sufficient diversion to get Bulleen across the line.

West Coast has only a limited amount of teams it can genuinely feel a chance to "get" and Logan, assuredly, is one of those. But so was Canberra and last week the Waves could not repeat that win. The question will be how much the Adelaide game (and travel) takes out of the Thunder. Just enough, I'm guessing, for West Coast to have one last hurrah.

THE Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello and the Marx Brothers walk into a bar. The barman looks up from where he is cleaning glasses, stares at them and says: "Is this some kind of black-and-white joke?"